“Amazon.com today announced its third annual list of the Most Well-Read Cities in America. The ranking was determined by compiling sales data of all book, magazine and newspaper sales in both print and Kindle format since June 1, 2012, on a per capita basis in cities with more than 100,000 residents.” (via Amazon Media Room)

It is misleading in some ways. It does not take into account cities with thriving independent bookstores. It also doesn’t capture areas with healthy library systems. Unfortunately, funding for libraries in many cities is abysmal. It would be interesting to compare per-capita spending on libraries with Amazon’s list. “Most well-read” is not the same as “Most Amazon purchases”